Contents

A taxi driver is beaten to death by a mob after running over a boy with his taxi. When Grissom arrives at the scene, he finds out that the boy was already dying from a stab wound. When Grissom and Sara find the actual crime scene at a basketball court, they discover the body of a man that was shot to death. Are the two murders related?

A taxi driver is talking to his female passenger while driving. A boy, Todd runs out in front of the taxi and is run over. The taxi driver panics and gets out of the taxi but when he appears to get back in to flee, a nearby mob beat him severely. Grissom and Brass arrive at the scene and Grissoms notices the boy's internal organs are hanging out: neither he nor Brass has seen this in a hit and run victim before. The passenger says the taxi driver wasn't trying to run away, but use his radio to call for help. The mob claim they are heroes but Brass isn't impressed as he demands DNA and a photo from each. Doc Robbins says Todd was dying already from a stab wound.

Grissom calls in Sara to help and following blood drops they locate the primary crime scene: a basketball court. Sara also believes the attack on the cabbie was racially motivated. Todd's mother says that the family were running from her ex-husband who had threatened to kill them. She says he phoned to threaten her and they were planning to flee again. Sara and Grissom find a gun in the park and the sniffer dogs uncover a dead man 20 yards from the crime scene. Todd's jacket shows gunshot residue suggesting he shot the other victim. However, there are no burns on his hands, which would show the shooter. They do discover that the other victim probably stabbed Todd, but the question is, who shot him? The victim also had a fractured femur containing copper fragments and a shoulder that dislocated post mortem. They learn that the cabbie has died in hospital.

Brass visits Todd's home and talks to his brother Eric, who says his dad is dead. Brass asks him to tell his mum to call him. The gun is registered to the ex-husband and Mrs Branson admits that she told Todd and Eric their dad was dead. The dead man is revealed to not be the ex-husband, but Stuart,Mrs Branson's boyfriend.Sara finds drag marks from the basketball court to the Stuart of body and realises there was another person. She and Grissom think that Todd did not fire the gun, but instead it was his father (John).

Brass interviews John and he denies killing Todd or Stuart. He says he has not seen his family for years and that his gun was stolen from him.

By doing an experiment involving Warrick being dragged first by Sara and then Judy, a secretary, they determine the person who dragged the body had limited upper body strength and had to stop and start, explaining Stuart's dislocated shoulder. Grissom thinks it was Mrs Branson, who shot Stuart because he stabbed her son. Sara theorizes that Mrs Branson sent Todd home, not knowing the severity of his wound, before hiding the body and disposing of the weapons. They have still not found the knife. They go to Mrs Branson's house and examine her hands- she has no burns but her son Eric does. He says the burn is from an iron but Brass says it was from the gun. Eric says that Todd had the gun and threatened Stuart, saying he didn't want to move again but he struggled with Todd and the gun hit Stuart's knee. Stuart stabbed Todd and then got shot by him, while Eric was helpless. However, Grissom and Sara use the evidence to show that it was Eric who didn't want to move and shot Stuart, while Todd tried to stop him and then got stabbed by Stuart in the scuffle. Mrs Branson claims that Eric got the gun from him. She says she always had it but didn't realise it was gone until that morning. She says she told Stuart about John's threats and he panicked and started carrying the knife. Brass tells Mrs Branson that Eric will go to a juvenile detention centre and if convicted will be eventually sent to state jail aged 21.

Meanwhile, Greg shows Grissom exactly which members of the mob inflicted which wounds on the cabbie using the blood on his shirt. He says only 6 of the mob can be tied to the beating using their DNA. Brass confronts the leader of the mob who pulled the cabbie from the car, telling him he is looking at 1st degree murder and that the cabbie was trying to call for help. He says the real hero was the cabbie and asks "What does that make you?"

As Brass sits down to discuss a DA deal, Grissom is observing and nods, with a small smile.

When Grissom and Sara are tracing the blood-trail from the boy hit by the cab, they are in one scene where you see thunder-clouds, and you can hear some thunder in the background, and it's getting dark. In the next scene they have arrived to the park, and it's more or less in the middle of the day, and the sun is shining from a cloudless sky.